Odds of a 2% federal pay raise and other workforce items from Senate spending bills

As Senate appropriators hammer out their version of fiscal 2025 government spending plans, several key areas affecting the federal workforce remain at play — one of which brings feds a step closer to a 2% federal pay raise next year.

The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced another four 2025 spending bills last week, with largely bipartisan support, bringing the total to 11 out of 12 spending bills that have so far advanced out of the committee.

For one, the committee unanimously advanced the Financial Services and General Government spending bill in a vote of 27-0. The legislation, if enacted, would appropriate about $27.9 billion to the covered agencies for 2025, a roughly 4.4% increase over enacted 2024 spending levels.

With the committee’s advancement of the bill, federal employees are another step closer to seeing a 2% federal pay raise in 2025. Appropriations committee members in the Senate, and previously in June in the House, have remained silent on the raise, indicating their likely alignment with the White House’s federal pay raise proposal from March.

At the same time, federal unions and other employee organizations have pushed for a larger federal pay raise in 2025, calling for a 7.4% pay boost rather than the 2% plan from the Biden administration.

The 2025 federal pay raise, however, won’t be official until President Joe Biden issues an alternative pay plan and signs an executive order to enact next year’s pay bump. In most years, presidents sign the executive order enacting the annual pay boost in December.

And for fiscal 2025 appropriations, nothing is final until the Senate and House reach a government spending agreement, something that’s not likely to happen for months to come. Although Senate appropriators have reached largely bipartisan agreements for next year’s spending levels, Democratic committee members in the House have — unsurprisingly — come out in strong opposition to the spending cuts and policy riders that GOP members are considering.

While Senate lawmakers were silent on the federal pay raise, several other provisions in the appropriations committee’s report language reveal many of the Senate’s priorities for the federal workforce as the next fiscal year approaches.

A closer eye on locality pay

In report language accompanying the financial services and general government legislation, Senate appropriators said they are “strongly” urging the Office of Personnel Management to review and issue clarifying guidance on how locality pay works for federal employees with telework agreements.

Specifically, the lawmakers are asking OPM to look more closely at whether employees are being paid in the appropriate locality pay area for where they are geographically located, and whether that aligns with their official duty station.

A few other members of Congress have recently raised questions about how locality pay should work for teleworking employees. In the new report language, the Senate lawmakers are also calling on OPM to tell agencies to train employees on the details of locality pay, and conduct reviews to ensure the regulations are being appropriately followed.

If the provision on locality pay remains included in the final spending package for 2025, OPM would have 120 days to complete the committee’s requests once the legislation is enacted.

Another attempt to reform federal hiring

Lawmakers are also urging OPM to continue looking at ways to improve and reform the federal hiring process, a topic that’s remained prevalent for years. In particular, Senate appropriators focused on the speed of the recruitment process, as well as barriers to federal employment.

“The committee is concerned with the length of time it takes the federal government to hire qualified employees,” the lawmakers wrote in report language accompanying the bill. “Rigid rules and long delays in the hiring and interview process discourage top candidates from applying for or accepting federal positions.”

The committee called on OPM to get input directly from the source: federal hiring managers themselves. OPM should collect information on the specific challenges hiring managers face, and what changes might be most beneficial to them, the committee said.

OPM, at the same time, is already looking to add more transparency on time-to-hire for agencies. As part of the President’s Management Agenda, OPM released a time-to-hire dashboard this month, detailing hiring trends over time, and how frequently candidates accept federal job offers. On average, agencies needed 101 days to hire a federal employee in 2023.

Along with time-to-hire concerns, appropriations committee members also focused on agency communications throughout the hiring process, and how much information job candidates receive about the status of their applications.

“The committee strongly encourages agencies to take appropriate measures, including consulting with OPM on how agencies can fully utilize the tools and technology available to them, to ensure the delivery of timely communications to applicants about their application status with notifications for each applicable stage of the hiring process,” the committee wrote.

Recruiting military spouses for federal jobs

The report language from Senate appropriators also pushed OPM to do more to encourage military spouses to join the federal government’s ranks.

Agencies have a special hiring authority aiming to more easily and quickly onboard military spouses and other similar groups, as well as a strategic plan from OPM on how to recruit and retain military spouses. But despite the resources, lawmakers said agencies may not be using the recruitment options consistently enough.

“The committee is aware that eligibility determinations for the military spouse non-competitive hiring authority occur on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of each individual federal hiring authority,” the committee wrote. “As a result, military spouses may not have maximized applicable federal hiring authorities and exceptions available to them.”

Hiring military spouses has been a priority for agencies for several years. Currently, military spouses face a 21% unemployment rate, due in part to the challenges of finding work amid the transitory lifestyle that often comes with being part of a military family.

The committee is now asking OPM to act as somewhat of a mediator for the hiring authority by getting better information to military spouses on the topic, while also helping agencies better find and connect with the candidate pool.

Digging into federal telework, office space

The committee’s report language once again lays out requirements for data and other information on federal telework and return-to-office policies at agencies.

Senate appropriators are specifically looking for information in six key areas related to federal telework and office space. They’re asking the Office of Management and Budget for details on agencies’ return-to-office action plans, current employee telework levels, telework policies, agreements with unions on telework, staff productivity levels, office space costs and utilization rates, as well as any plans to reduce those costs.

Notably, the plethora of requests from the committee are virtually identical to a provision included in the 2024 spending package, which was enacted in March. Despite the 90-day deadline from the 2024 spending legislation, OMB has not yet publicly released its report on telework and office space to Congress.

Many questions from Congress on federal telework arose after OMB issued an April 2023 memo asking agencies to scale back on telework, and instead increase “meaningful” in-person presence. At the same time, there has been a push to reduce the federal footprint and mitigate the costs of underutilized office space.

If the spending bill is ultimately enacted including the telework provision, OMB would once again face a 90-day deadline to send the information to Congress.

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